Hip-Hop Drum Fills?

Hey Stephen,

First off i like all your clips on youtube. Ive been following techniques and tips from your videos for over a half year now.
I will subscribe to your site later on this week.

I am currently playing in two groups. The second is in the hiphop.soul.rock genre.
For the second group all the songs are already recorded either electronically or by there formular drummers. The presure is a bit bigger for this group, because there is a management and everything...
Because it is hiphop it is much about the beat and i have no problem to play there songs but i want to give them and make it for me a little bit interesting. Most of the songs are around 80-90 bpm and played in 16th notes,2 bar or 4 bar beats. I really have a hard time finding descent fills to make it interesting.

Is this for example also something you help people with?
I am only playing for 3,5 years, started at age 25 :)


What's up Tielman!

Once you gave me your YouTube named I knew exactly who you were...Thanks so much for the email! I'm so glad the lessons on You Tube have been helpful...that's what they're there for.

It's great that you've getting involved in various groups. Hip hop is a different animal. I love playing it because the beauty is in its simplicity. It's all about the groove and making people move to the beat. That's a totally different skill than throwing a bunch of licks in. It's good that you're thinking about how you can enhance the parts that are already there, make it yours, and also make it a bit interesting rhythmically. My biggest piece of advice would be to LISTEN to the style of music...in particular, listen to a band called The Roots. They've been around for a really long time. They're what is called "Organic Hip-Hop". All of them play the instruments live. Their drummer, Questlove, is a BEAST! Just by listening to their albums, you will learn a ton of effective and useful fills. My other piece of advice would be...when in doubt, keep it simple. Hip-hop doesn't need a ton of fills...it's all about the groove. Focus on making your grooves as tight as you can. Use this opportunity to work on that area of your playing.

It's alot of pressure working with a band that has management and a regular schedule of shows. You're on the right track though...you're thinking about the gig and what you can do to enhance the music. That's a sign of a real musician.

I actually do help drummers with this sort of thing. If you subscribe to the live lessons, I'll make it a point to devote a couple of lessons in the next few weeks to this particular topic and style. I love coming up with lesson topics around issues that my students are having trouble with. It's what drives me as a teacher.

I'd love to have you join the online lessons. Today is Funky Drummer Day...we do it once a month and we pick apart a couple of funk grooves. We're looking at some grooves from a band called The Funky Meters with Zigaboo Modeliste on drums. Gonna be a blast!


-ST